Enchanted in the Moonlight – Miyabi

Welcome back to another review post! As I mentioned in my previous post, I did say that the following post had a chance of being an otome game review and so here it is!

Today, I’m going to review Miyabi’s story, from Enchanted in the Moonlight, a game by Voltage. Voltage is great at what it does and over the past year and has been announcing and releasing various otome games like some well-oiled machine. The new ones include First Love Diaries, Finally, in Love Again, Enchanted in the Moonlight, My Forged Wedding: PARTY and the most recent one, True Love Sweet Lies. It kind of seems like Voltage is on a roll.

Anyway, a little background about me and Enchanted in the Moonlight: I’ve always liked ayakashi stories ever since I was introduced to Kamisama Hajimemashita. After Kamisama Hajimemashita, I moved on to Black Bird, Inari, Konkon, Koi Iroha and so on. And so when Enchanted in the Moonlight was released sometime back in May or June this year, I was ecstatic. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it, but I’ve trained myself to be rational and patient (VERY PATIENT) so I could bide my time and catch certain stories that would go on sale eventually.

So on to the review!

My first choice in this game was of course, Miyabi because he’s the kitsune. After playing through his story, I felt really great, like my wait was worth it and that his story was one of the best stories of Voltage’s that I’ve ever bought and played through. This is just my opinion of course, we’ll get to the actual review in a while.

Before you get started on my review, I suggest you play through the prologue of Enchanted in the Moonlight first, so you get the premise of the story. Or if you’re too lazy to, here it is for you in a simple, summarised version:

You’re an ordinary girl who works in a library as your day job. One day, you’re approached by five handsome men who are later revealed to be ayakashi. You are told that you have special blood flowing through your body and that you, as the special human, have the power to amplify their abilities. Because you are so desirable as the special human, the five ayakashi make a deal to protect you in exchange for your body.

(The premise is actually really similar to that of Black Bird, don’t you think?)

You choose Miyabi upon being asked to choose your protector and Miyabi arrogantly responds to it, all “of-course-it-would-be-me-who-else-could-it-possibly-be”-ish. You almost immediately regret choosing this arrogant fox who’s so full of himself. But of course, no can do. You’re stuck with Miyabi who promises to protect you so long as Nishiki from the Hebi (snake demon) clan, who is after you, is eliminated and out of the picture.

it doesn’t take you long before you discover that Miyabi is a pervert and a pretty blatant one too. He sexually harasses you constantly, such as in the bath and at night when you’re going to bed. Obviously, you don’t appreciate it, having only just met him a few days ago and try to resist him but your body says otherwise for some reason. Although I could understand the MC’s anger in being sexually harassed, I did kind of like those scenes, because it showed me Miyabi’s personality and I think that personality suited him, being a kitsune you know. Sly, cunning and teasing.

In your workplace at the library, you harbour a long-time crush on your boss, Taro who is kind and nothing like Miyabi. While Miyabi is bossy and pushy, you like Taro because he’s the exact opposite. You try to get closer to Taro while avoiding Miyabi but Miyabi manages to ruin your plans a good majority of the times. He constantly questions you what you see in Taro and in what area is he not superior to him, seeming jealous of your affection towards your boss. But despite him being an annoying, arrogant, full-of-himself perverted fox, Miyabi keeps to his promise and comes to save you whenever you’re in danger like a knight in shining armour.

Over time, as you come to spend more time together with Miyabi and travel with him to the Mononoke Viillage to be presented to the villagers as his fiancee, you learn about his past and his family, explaining the reason behind his character and the values he has. When you attempt to understand and get closer to him, Miyabi however, rebukes you and distances himself away from you.

Of course, this is the time when the enemy strikes and Nishiki reveals himself to you, having bided his time to attack. He successfully removes Miyabi’s mark on you by replacing it with his own, claiming you as his. Just when it seems like all hope is lost, in predictable shoujo fashion, Miyabi appears just in time to save you. However, it is revealed that he was too late, for Nishiki had placed poison in your body already and it would only be a matter of time before the poison took effect. Miyabi takes you and escapes back to your house. There, he tries to replace Nishiki’s mark with his own and remove the poison, to no avail. The four other ayakashi offer to return to the village to get an antidote while Miyabi stays behind to protect and look after you.

Nishiki returns to watch you succumb to his poison, which is revealed to be a puppet-poison. You know, the kind that makes you do the master’s bidding against your will. He orders you to kill Miyabi and you begin to tear up as you raise a knife in your hands.

You beg Miyabi to stay away from you and run but he does the unthinkable instead – he smiles at you and opens up his arms to accept you and embrace you. Although I’ve seen these kind of story twists before, this one still struck my heart and gave me the chills.

After that, the rest of the story flows in shoujo-fashion predictability with the guys arriving back to give you the antidote and you gaining back enough strength to pass it on to Miyabi, who is now injured from your attack. He gains back his energy and together with the other ayakashi, fight Nishiki and his army of snakes.

After the ordeal, you and Miyabi admit your feelings for one another and you offer your body to him, finally becoming a couple.

Overall, I really liked this story and I really enjoyed playing it. For some reason, the story had all the elements needed to make it interesting enough and yet not too predictable. I mean, yeah it’s predictable, but only ONCE you understood where it was going. I couldn’t have predicted from the beginning that twist in the story but I did correctly guess Nishiki’s identity pretty early into the story.

I like Miyabi’s arrogance, his unfazed-by-everything attitude and his sly and cunning side. The whole thing makes him feel more believable as a person and not just some made-up fictional 2D character. Which I know he is, of course. I think the reason why some people may dislike Miyabi is because of his arrogance and nonchalant attitude towards the MC. Early on in the story when he begins sexually harassing her, he ignores her wishes for him to stop it, saying that it turns him on even more. I guess that is mean, because I would feel angry and indignant too, if some stranger I’d just met did that to me too.

And as usual, the group interaction scenes are great and funny as always, which is wonderful 🙂
Group interactions can always tell us about the personalities of the other guys so when I saw the usually stoic and no-nonsense upright Chikage having a humorous side, it really cracked me up.

One teensie bit of a complaint that I have is that I felt that the attraction between the MC and Miyabi was a bit too sudden. It felt like she suddenly gave in to Miyabi’s affections because he had been constantly seducing her (AKA sexually harassing her) and because she remembered that she liked it, therefore she must like him too. Miyabi too, just before coming to her rescue to later admit that he loves her, he was distancing himself from her, refraining from all the sexual harassment as well as physical distance. And suddenly, within an episode or two, he turns around and does a 360.

But overall, in conclusion, I really enjoyed this story, it’s fantastic if you love kitsune(s) and a good drama, romance, action-packed story. The music is great too, I am in love with the game’s main theme song right now.

If I have to rate this game quality which would include character personality and development, music and story, I would give this a9/10 because it had way more action in it, coupled with touching scenes here and there. It was a good balance, I think.

So that’s my review for today! If you guys wish to ask more about Miyabi’s story, don’t hesitate to leave a comment below, I’ll be more than happy to give you an answer! And if you guys want a walkthrough for this story route, don’t hesitate to request for it too.